s this might have been
amusing for Frank to watch. For though Andrew fell to the earth a
well-clothed and decent burgher--he arose a forked, uncased, bald-pated,
and beggarly-looking scarecrow.

And indeed Frank and the Bailie would soon have shared the same fate,
had not Dougal appeared on the scene in the nick of time, and compelled
the plunderers to restore their spoil. So to Helen Mac-Gregor they were
taken, Dougal fighting and screaming all the way, evidently determined
to keep his captives to himself, or at least to prevent others from
claiming them.

With many but (considering the time and occasion) somewhat ill-chosen
words of familiarity, the Bailie claimed kindred with Rob Roy's wife.
But in this he did himself more harm than good, for his ill-timed
jocularity grated on Helen Mac-Gregor's ear, in her present mood of
exaltation, and she promptly commanded that the Sassenachs should one
and all be bound and thrown into the deeps of the lake.

But here Dougal threw himself between the angry woman and her prisoners
with such vehemence that he was able to stave off, at least for a time,
the execution of the supreme sentence. These men were, he said, friends
of the Chief and had come up on his assurance to meet him at the Clachan
of Aberfoil.

But at that very moment the wild strains of the pibroch were heard
approaching, and a strong body of Highlanders in the prime of life
arrived on the scene. It now appeared that those who had fought and
beaten the troops were either beardless boys or old men scarcely able to
hold a musket. But there was no joy of victory on the faces of the
newcomers. The pipes breathed a heart-breaking lament.

_Rob Roy was taken!_

"Taken," repeated Helen Mac-Gregor, "taken!--And do you live to say so?
Did I nurse you for this, coward dogs--that you should see your father
prisoner, and come back to tell it?"

The sons of Rob Roy, the elder James, tall and handsome, the younger
Robin Oig, ruddy and dark, both hung their heads. And after the first
burst of her indignation was over, the elder explained how Rob Roy had
been summoned to bide tryst with--(here Frank Osbaldistone missed the
name, but it sounded like his own). Having, however, some suspicion of
treachery, Rob Roy had ordered the messenger to be detained, and had
gone forth attended by only Angus Breck and little Rory. Within half an
hour Angus Breck came back with the tidings that the Chief had been
captured by a party of th